E’s Update: Back in Texas

One of our own, E, serves in Central Asia. We support his work as a community developer, English teacher, cycling advocate, and Jesus follower as he lives and shares the gospel to his friends.

Hi from Austin. Thank you for your prayers and support. A few items:

Back to Texas indefinitely. I have finished out my original contract with the NGO I was working under in Central Asia, and have returned to the States, where I will be getting married shortly and living indefinitely with my wife-to-be. We will keep praying about where we could be used, and Central Asia is probably first on our radar, but for at least the first year or two we’ll focus on our marriage and our community in Austin.

Not totally done with work. There is a Dutch guy, on his way to Central Asia, who will assume many of the responsibilities I handled during my time with the books project for which I was doing consultancy work. My NGO director asked if I would be willing to be available via email and Skype for an extra 2-3 months in order to help the new colleague in his adjustment to the project. There are also loose ends that I was not able to finish in my time there (project website, short promotional video, more translation work, more book-editing work) that I have agreed to help with from over here. Because of that, my NGO director then wrote to CrossWorld asking them to extend my salary through May. CrossWorld has agreed.

Counseling. The daily emotional toll of life in Central Asia is something that most of us are not used to in America. Especially because of my language ability and cultural understanding, I was able to soak up a lot of the stories and pain and suffering that people go through so viscerally there. I was also exposed to multiple security crises myself that have had their impacts on me, for better and sometimes for worse. I have been meeting with a counselor here in Austin who has been extremely helpful in helping me work through the darkness and get back to the light. CrossWorld is allowing me to use my work funds (a non-salary section of your donations) for this counseling.

A job. I am job-hunting these days and very hopeful about a few openings that not only would help me to support Grace but also would align with my strengths to support visions that make positive impacts in the Austin community. I would really appreciate your prayer for these opportunities and my interview processes.

Many thanks and much love. Thankful for all the blessings in my life.
E